A public highway at common law is a common way, free to all the King's subjects to pass and repass at liberty, and an unauthorized obstruction is a nuisance and punishable.158

The placing of any obstruction upon a highway and the keeping of it therein for any considerable space of time is an obstruction and is a nuisance.159

152 Underbill's Cr. Ev., Sec. 365;

State vs. Bush, 122 Ind., 42.

Contra: State vs. Haskins, 109

Iowa, 656. 153 State vs. Lyon, 89 N. C, 568; Underbill's Cr. Ev., Sec.

365. 154 Wood vs. State, 32 Tex. Cr., 476.

155 State vs. Grigg, 104 N. C, 882. 156 Com. vs. Place, 153 Pa. St., 314. 157 Vallery vs. State, 42 Neb., 123. 158 State vs. Berdetta, 73 Ind., 185;

State vs. Merrit, 35 Conn., 314;

Com. vs. King, 13 Mete.

(Mass.), 115.

The obstruction of any portion of the highway is sufficient to constitute the offense, though it is not on the traveled part.160

Thus the front steps of a building which project into the highway is an obstruction.161

The obstruction may be indirect, as by damming a stream causing it to overflow the highway or render a ford impassable.162

A railroad company obstructing travel on a highway by a failure to keep its tracks or bridge in repair at crossings commits an offense.163

So a railroad company may be liable for obstructing a highway by unnecessarily stopping its trains on the road, if it appears that the public travel is impeded by the obstruction.164